Since assuming office in May 2009, Shashi Tharoorhas been more in the news for his tweetsrather than his work as the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs. Is Tharoor right in criticizing his own Government’s policies on a public forum like Twitter? Or are his colleagues in Parliament devoid of a sense of humour? Well, let’s leave that debate for another day. For now, let’s take lessons from Tharoor’s “tweet-in-mouth” troubles and draw out some basic guidelines for employees who use social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, etc. to publish content related to their work.
Look before you leap: Before putting up any content on the internet, please remember that you are on a public forum. So do not publish anything that you wouldn’t want to be viewed by your family, friends, colleagues, clients, business associates or the general public.
Identify yourself: If you are writing on topics related to your work, then identify yourself, your company and if necessary, your role in the company. Do not work anonymously or use pseudonyms.
Use a disclaimer: Make it very clear that the views and opinions expressed are your own and not those of your company.
Follow the law: Be aware of and comply with laws governing copyright, fair use and financial disclosure.
Protect confidential/proprietary information: Do not disclose confidential/proprietary information of your company or similar information shared by third parties with your company. Also, avoid posting pictures or details of a private conversation without seeking permission from the concerned person(s).
Exercise discretion: Never identify colleagues, clients or business associates without their approval. Similarly, avoid discussing internal policies or commenting upon sensitive and confidential details of client engagements.
Be safe rather than sorry: Be respectful of your company, colleagues, clients, business associates, competitors and the general public. Remember that content on a public domain will be accessible to the entire world for a long period of time. So do not publish something that will come back to haunt you later.
Follow the above guidelines and you could save yourself from some embarrassment!
Seth Godin’s blog post on July 27th had four interesting videos from his Amex Open session with Tom Peters. One of them (provided below) has Seth’s take on “Social Networking for Business”… his views, as usual, are precise, unambiguous and thought provoking.
“Networking…” says Seth, “…is always important when it’s real and it’s always a useless distraction when it’s fake.”
This got me pondering over my own limited experience with social networking and the impact it’s had on my business. I term my experience “limited” because I have a presence only on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter… and even on these sites, I am by no stretch of imagination a “compulsive” networker.
I’ve been on Facebook since mid-2008, but have hardly ever done anything on it… I have 55 friends, uploaded 15 pictures (none of them of human beings!) and posted less than 10 comments. If the guys at Facebook read this, they’ll probably cancel my account!!!
I jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon in Feb 2009… though a late entrant, I was very clear from day one that I was not going to get trapped in the “followers” and “following” game. As I write this post, I have 96 followers and am following 64 on Twitter… modest numbers they may seem, but the important fact is that they are not mere “numbers”… these are relationships I’d like to nurture carefully and build into worthwhile and mutually beneficial associations.
Finally coming to LinkedIn… well, I’ve been “linked in” since 2006 and I must confess that this is the only site where I’ve actually invested some serious time networking… and the results, though not spectacular, have been directly proportional to my efforts. Now let’s see the ways in which the network has helped in my business.
Staying in Touch
LinkedIn is a great place to stay in touch with friends, colleagues (past and present), associates and industry peers. It helps me keep abreast of my connections’ career moves, projects they are working on, books they are reading, events they are attending, as well as their travel plans, blog posts, etc. And believe me, there’s no greater joy than sending a short congratulatory note to someone (especially somebody one hasn’t met in a while) on a promotion, new project, or book launch.
Making Connections
The Groups and Discussion Boards on LinkedIn have provided me with the perfect platform to network, share knowledge, exchange views and connect with like-minded professionals and industry experts from across the globe. Suffice to say that some of the connections I’ve made through LinkedIn are priceless and invaluable.
Scheduling Meetings
There have been several instances where I’ve had business meetings fixed based on the travel plans posted by my connections or me on LinkedIn. Without the “My Travel” application, it would’ve been highly unlikely for us to have known about each other’s presence in the same city at the same time.
Finding Experts
Though there have been a number of occasions where LinkedIn has helped me find experts in various domains, one particular experience stands out as my quintessential moment in social networking. A US-based organization was desperately looking for a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in OSHA… despite being on the hunt for well over 3 months, they just couldn’t find someone with the credentials to match their selection criteria. When we were approached to help out, I posted the requirement on LinkedIn’s discussion boards. Lo and behold, I received four responses within 12 hours… and after a couple of quick email exchanges and telephone calls, one of the SMEs was signed up for the project within 48 hours of putting up the post! Sitting in India, it took me 2 days to find and finalize an expert in the US… while the US-based client couldn’t find one in 3 months. That’s the power of social networking!!!
Finding Partners
NetDimenions, Trivantis, and Epignosis – we, at C2 Workshop, are proud to be a partner with these three world-renowned organizations for reselling their award winning products and solutions in the Knowledge/Learning/Performance Management space. And guess what? I met the representatives of each of these organizations on LinkedIn before negotiating and finalizing the partnership deals. Need I say more???
Building Business
Though I am yet to strike any multi-million dollar deal that’ll help me feature on LinkedIn’s Success Stories page, I must admit that LinkedIn has helped me win business deals of moderate sizes over the years. Leads from one’s direct connections as well as responses to opportunities on the discussion boards are the most obvious ways for generating business on the network. However, one must not overlook or underestimate the equally important and effective role that referrals (both direct and indirect) play in doing the same. Just last week I finalized a deal to develop e-learning courses for the banking and financial services industry… this customer in India was referred to me by someone in Singapore who in turn was originally referred to me by my LinkedIn connection in Greece!
Brand Building
Any presence on the webosphere does help build one’s corporate as well as personal brand image. At this point, I’m unable to either quantify or measure the impact LinkedIn has had on the same… hopefully, it is positive even if it is limited.
To summarize, I’d like to repeat what I said earlier… the results of social networking on my business may not be spectacular, but they are directly proportional to my efforts. I know I have not done too badly… but I also know that there’s a lot more I could do. Importantly, I’ve kept it “real” rather than “fake”… hope Seth Godin is listening! :-)
Twitter may be attracting phenomenal numbers of new users lately, but a recent report from CBC News (Quitters clipping Twitter's wings) suggests that 60 percent of Twitter users quit within a month. This alarming retention rate would ultimately limit the reach of Twitter to a maximum of just 10 per cent of internet users.
RAVI PRATAP SINGH
I am Co-Founder & Director at C2 Workshop. I have sold learning products, services and solutions in over 35 countries in the past two decades. My experience spans marketing, strategy, management, operations, brand building and channel development.
